Ship Configuration Update

I've spent most of my time lately on cleaning up some bugs I've found in the code and tweaking a few small items here and there. I did rework the Ship Configuration screen and now have it pretty much in its final form. I added sortable tables for each section and a lot more useful information for each module is being displayed. I also added more safeguards to prevent cheating since until today it was possible to pass a direct URL and add more modules than you should be able to for a given ship section. The only thing I still need to do for this screen is to make the module names links to the Item Details screen, but I haven't implemented that yet so I'll go back and add the links once I do add that screen to the game.

The ship functionality is slowly getting closer to completion, so I should be able to start working on resources and colony functionality within a few months.

Ship Configuration Update

I've got the basic functionality of the Ship Configuration screen working now. A player can now install modules from the Cargo Area into either the Command, General, or Engine section, depending on what type of module it is.

So all of the necessary modules for a basic ship are now in the game, but they don't currently actually affect anything. The next step will having the installed modules effect the ship, so the ship's maximum cargo will be calculated based on how many Cargo Modules are installed, and the ship's movement speed will be calculated on what Slipdrives are installed and what those drive modules are rated.

Here's a screenshot of the current Ship Configuration with my test ship shown. I'm going to make this a little prettier very soon, but it does what it needs to do.

Ship Configuration

My current focus is on the Ship Configuration Screen.

Each ship will be composed of three major sections: Command, General, and Engine.

Each section will slots that will hold modules. The number of module slots a ship has is based on its class. So a 0.1 starter ship will have 1 Command Slot, 1 General Slot, and 1 Engine Slot. If you upgrade your ship to be Class 0.2, it will gain one extra General slot and another General Slot for each advance up to 1.0, at which time you will gain one extra Command and Engine slot.

So a Class 1.1 ship will have 2 Command Slots, 11 General Slots, and 2 Engine Slots.

General Slots will hold Cargo Modules and more specialized modules like Fighter Bay Modules, Weapon Modules, etc. Each Cargo module you have installed will allow your ship to carry 500 mass units of cargo.

Command slots will hold things like Command Modules and other modules I haven't invented yet, but possibly things like Sensor Modules and things that make a ship fight better. It will also be able to hold Science modules that let ships perform better research out in the field.

Engine Slots hold either Slipdrives or Jump Drives. Slipdrives are rated from 1.0 to 10.0 and the speed of your ship will be determined on the rating of your Slipdrive compared to how many modules are installed on your ship. Each slipdrive can push up to 10 modules at full speed, so a 0.5 Class Ship with a 1.2 rated Slipdrive could move at 1.2 Space Squares per Hour when traveling on the System Map.

Right now I'm working on players being able to install and uninstall modules on a ship that is landed at a colony. After that I'll be able to modify the new ship creation to have basic modules installed upon ship creation.